Missing woman found by intrepid searcher

BATH, Ill. - It was a lucky day Monday for Elma Pruitt, the Bath woman who was missing for about 20 hours.

Sharon Woods Harris

It was a lucky day Monday for Elma Pruitt, the Bath woman who was missing for about 20 hours.

Pruitt, 76, who has Parkinson's disease and diabetes, went on what was supposed to be a short excursion on her golf cart about 2:30 p.m. Sunday. When she did not return, a rescue operation began in the fields and wooded area around her home.

David Dodds, a Jacksonville Correctional Center officer and a hunter in the area, decided to take his ATV into the Sanganois Conservation area to see if he could find the woman.

Much to his surprise and that of Pruitt, he came across her on an island in the conservation area.

“I am so proud of him,” said Dodds mother, JoAnn Dodds. “He was kind of speechless.

“I think he's just glad he found her alive. I think if it had been another day out there she might not have made it. The road she took was nothing but a four-wheel drive trail. David fishes and hunts down there. Someone would have to know the area well to find her out there.”

Dodds found Pruitt about 11 a.m., said Mason County Sheriff Wayne Youell.

“I went down in the duck hunting areas and in the bottoms,” said Dodds. “I was running every little path.

“I knew if she went down (to the Sanganois Conservation Area) she would never know how to get out of there. I look for mushrooms and go duck hunting down there. I just happened to go through some timber and I saw her black and white golf cart there, but she was nowhere around.”

Dodds shut down his ATV and listened. It was then that he heard a faint voice coming from the distance. He couldn’t see her for the brush and timber, but he knew he had found her.

“I heard her yelling from way off down at Coon Slough,” said Dodds.
As he ran toward the voice, he yelled, “I’m coming ma’am, I’m coming ma’am,” he said.

“She was sitting on a log,” said Dodds. “I asked her if she was OK.

“I told her she had a lot of people looking for her and worried about her. She had a cut on her knee and mosquito bites all over her. I asked her if she could stand up, but she was pretty weak, so I ran and got my ATV and drove it through to where she was. I tried my cell phone and it wouldn’t work down there, so I helped her onto the four-wheel drive and told her I was taking her out of there.”

Youell said many volunteers worked Sunday until dark and then again starting at 7 a.m. Monday morning searching for the woman.

The Illinois State Police brought in a helicopter to aid in the search. Police patrolled little roads into fields and back roads for the missing woman.

Many groups participated in the search - the Kilbourne Fire Department, the Mason County Sheriff's Department, the Mason County Dive Team, Mason County ESDA, Havana City Fire department, Chandlerville Fire department, Bath Basic Life Support, Havana Rural Fire Department, Mason County Search and Rescue, and other independent volunteers.

Dodds was an independent - he went out on his own to search, said Youell.

“He knew of the search and took it upon himself to go into the woods and search for her,” said Youell. “She is very lucky that he did that.”

Youell said Pruitt is doing fine - although she had a lot of mosquito bites.